Fuori dall’irrealtà. La rivoluzione sensibile da pensare

Abstract

This article explores the theme of irreality from the perspective of aesthetics as a “theory of perception”. Starting from the so-called perceptual catastrophe of second modernity – with the transition to large-scale industry and the advent of photography and cinema – it seeks to identify the continuity with contemporary alienation linked to digital images. The notion of “claustrophilia” coined by psychoanalyst Elvio Fachinelli, together with some phenomenological psychiatric studies on perception in psychosis and trauma, are decisive in thinking about this continuity. Similarly, feminist thought, together with the materialist understanding of relations of oppression and exploitation, directs reflection on what it means today to break the spell of irreality. They direct the question towards a way of understanding aesthetics that is properly political and conflictual, as well as a harbinger of emancipation. Irreality is then overturned in its positive sense of contesting the present state of affairs.